Battles over broccoli

A repost about my awesome parenting skills! (and oh yeah I definitely had to look up the spelling of broccoli).

Monday, January 12, 2009
Here we go. . .battles over broccoli

If I hadn't yet thought of myself as a "real Mom" I did today. I heard myself saying those very real "Mom" words before I even realized it. "You will not leave this table until you eat at least one bite of that broccoli." Seriously, verbatim. I must say, in true grown up fashion. . .Braden started it! He made the broccoli so he wanted Tucker to try it. So, since I knew it was important to Braden, I laid down the law. To my credit it worked. He ate it. Not so much to my credit. . .he then threw it up.

Normally I wouldn't force the issue but there were 2 things at play here:

1) The child has weighed 42 lbs for about 2 years. He is 4 1/2 years old and he can wiggle his little ass into a 24 month swimsuit! Now, broccoli is not the gateway food to fattening up a child, but we're trying to get vitamins in him without them being made of gel and high fructose corn syrup.

2) He eats BROCCOLI for the babysitter! God bless her! So, really, we could disregard the vitamin part of Number 1 because he does get enough. And the kid does keep getting taller (1/2 as tall as me already--which isn't saying a lot, but still). He eats whatever my wonderful babysitter puts in front of him (mostly because the other kids are eating it). He just won't eat for us.

And, his dad made it, and his dad is a really, really good cook so I wanted Tucker to try it. But, Braden did put lemon juice on it and I think that is what turned Tucker away. And by turned away I mean, made him sniff it, shudder, wrinkle his nose, and give me a pitiful look. We persisted. Braden pulled off a little piece and Tucker licked it and then wiped his tongue with a paper towel. Awesome.

Finally he ate a piece and we let him get down. He crawled in my lap and I tried to get him to eat more. He wouldn't do it. Then I saw why. He couldn't open his mouth because he was STILL HOLDING THE BROCOLI IN HIS MOUTH! Then, when he saw that he was busted because I saw the green shoots sticking out of his mouth, he started laughing. And that's when he gagged and sort of puked up the brocoli into the trash can.

Score one for Tucker. Dad relented and Tucker ended up with a cookie. With icing on it. And sprinkles.

Good times!